Mr. Aidan Dunning:

I am sure people contact Deputies to say that they happen to be living in a particular place and cannot get broadband there. The national broadband scheme, NBS, was designed primarily to deal with areas where there was no broadband availability. While it is only basic broadband, it has been a success in terms of making broadband available to over 200,000 premises that did not have it before. The take-up has not been as high as we would have hoped when we launched the scheme in 2008. We estimate that there are just over 40,000 customers at this stage of the NBS. That scheme is operated by service provider 3, with whom we came to a contractual agreement. A certain amount of Exchequer investment went into the scheme but it has proven to be a success in terms of opening up the broadband world to people who did not have that opportunity before. We also have anecdotal evidence that the scheme has induced other operators to compete in NBS areas, including Eircom. That is all to the benefit of those areas.

Even after all of that, we are aware that there may be areas that cannot be reached at all. We have initiated a rural broadband scheme which is being scoped out at the moment but again, under that scheme, we can only go into areas where the European Commission is satisfied that there is no other service provider. The evidence to date indicates that there is at least one service provider in all of these areas and if that service provider can make an offering available, we cannot go in and offer the rural broadband scheme. The NBS is working well and the contract lasts until 2014. We cannot go into those areas until that contract ends but I would envisage them being the target for a minimum of 30 Mb after that date. The experiential difference that will make, to individuals and particularly to enterprises, will be enormous. I will provide the committee with details of the aforementioned website, which would be very useful for members to have at their disposal.

The issue of broadband for schools and the concept of extending it out to enterprises in business parks or other locations was raised. The reality is that the broadband for schools project is a contract for high speed broadband for schools only. We had a certain amount of resources at our disposal in the Department. As a developmental Department, we felt it was very important that we do our bit, in conjunction with our colleagues in the Department of Education and Skills, to upgrade the digital skills of the work force of the future. That is what we are doing and we are starting in the areas where connectivity is poorest, mainly in western areas of the country. Roll out for the next 200 schools will be in those areas. By the end of 2014 we expect all of the 800-plus schools to have that facility. However, it will only be for the schools. We do not - and will not - have the resources to go beyond that. In any event, in many cases, service providers would be open to speaking to enterprises in towns about providing tailor-made broadband solutions.

We are trying to improve the speeds in the smaller towns which do not have the requisite speeds they would like. That is the second segment, so to speak, of the three point targets in the pillar I set out at the start of my presentation.

On the last point from Deputy Harrington, I have dealt with the large multinationals. Ireland's success in that area in recent years, notwithstanding our economic travails, has been outstanding and that is seen to be the case throughout the world. Broadband connectivity has contributed to that, as has international connectivity, which was mentioned. We have Project Kelvin, Global Crossing and some others. I attended the launch of the EirGrid interconnector last week, which is a fantastic feat of engineering of which this country should be proud. It will make a huge difference in terms of energy provision, but alongside the electrical cables there is also Internet connectivity. That will improve the situation in that regard. For an export oriented country such as ours, it is crucial we have good international connectivity. All of what I have said will deliver that. I hope I dealt with most of the points raised.